Hoboken Film Festival July 2009

The German Culture Meetup Group announced a get together in Hoboken to watch the latest Batman movie at the Hoboken Film Festival. This took place in a park on a pier with an inflatable screen. This had no particular relevance to German culture but neither did the locally famous Whisky Bar to which they all planned to adjourn after the film. I, who live in far off Manhattan and had to be up at 5 in the Morning to get to work on time, could not even stay for the end of the film at 11 PM. Only about 4 people showed up from the group. This included Amy and her girlfriend. They are big Beavis and Butthead fans and enthralled everyone by dancing in imitation of Beavis and Butthead. We were joined by a nice black guy, originally from North Carolina, who was struggling to learn German and by the lone member of the German Language Group, a young Chinese woman. Certainly a very small but diverse group. I did not succeed in finding anyone fluent in Low Saxon but Amy, whose parents are Low Saxon speakers) was fascinated to learn that Harpo Marx and all the Marx brothers were fluent in Low Saxon even though they were born in NY. I hope I will find speakers of Low Saxon at future meetups because I want to rebuild my knowledge of the language to aid me in my translations of songs and poetry from that language into English.

Hoboken Film Festival July 2009